BREMERTON, Wash. -
Southern California carried a 19-stroke lead into the final round and cruised to a seven-stroke win over Brigham Young following the third and final round on Tuesday at the 2004 Opus NW Husky Invitational at the par 72, 7,073-yard Olympic Course at Gold Mountain. UC Davis finished the third round 36 strokes off the lead and in seventh place.

The Aggies (1121) opened the day in seventh place and battled UC Irvine (1119) down to the final holes for sixth place honors. Despite shooting 377 for the day, six strokes better then the Anteaters, UC Irvine's lead entering the day was too great and the Aggies missed sixth place by two strokes.

Individually, USC's Ben Hayes' even-par 72 was enough to earn a one-stroke win over BYU's Oscar Alvarez, who also shot 72 on Tuesday. Hayes' three-round score of 212 was one stroke ahead of Alvarez (213) and two strokes better than a trio of players, including BYU's Greg Machtaler (214), Minnesota's Josh Persons (214) and Washington's Alex Prugh (214).

For the Aggies, senior Jay Westerlund fired a six-over 78 on Tuesday but still managed to finish in a tie for 12th at 2-over, 218. Sophomore Steven Strong had the best round of the day for UC Davis, shooting a 1-under, 71, to move from 23rd where he started the day to a tie for 14th. Freshman Ramie Sprinkling (226) tied for 30th while junior Erik Hill (228) finished tied for 37th and sophomore Louie Bishop (237) was tied for 52nd. Senior Eric Restrepo finished in 56th place with a three-round score of 238.

"We have a roster of good players, and seeing Steve step up and Ramie show he can compete is a big plus for us," said Aggie head coach Cy Williams. "We need to get a couple of our veterans going and we can be a very formidable team."

UC Davis is next in action on Monday when it competes at the Windon Memorial Classic, hosted by Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill.